BYU's Tyler Batty shined at the Shrine Bowl and should rise up NFL draft boards

The East-West Shrine Bowl is one of the most prestigious all-star games for college football players to elevate their draft stock. Practices throughout the week leading up to the game are scouted, clips go viral on social media, and some fringe draft prospects blossom into mid-round selections. 

BYU sent two players to the 2025 Shrine Bowl in defensive end Tyler Batty and cornerback Jakob Robinson.  

Throughout the week during practice there was a lot of buzz about Batty.

AJ Schulte of A to Z Sports, for example, reported that, “Tyler Batty has been arguably the most impressive pass rusher at the Shrine Bowl.” He went on to highlight that the BYU star was regularly winning one-on-one drills and showing off a number of moves to get to the quarterback. 

BYU fans who geek out about things like online reports coming from Shrine Bowl practices were pumped to see how Batty would perform in the actual game which aired on NFL Network on Thursday night. 

Tyler Batty more than delivered. 

Playing for the West squad, the BYU defensive end was making plays all over the field. But blue-goggled BYU fans weren’t the only ones noticing Batty’s strong play, the announcers did as well. Batty got more glowing coverage from the Shrine Bowl announcers than perhaps any other player on the West’s defense. Here are some of the most impressive plays from his on-field performance. 

Pursuit on a screen pass

On this play Batty begins by rushing the quarterback off the edge, recognizes a quick flare screen, then changes direction in pursuit of the receiver. He flashed his awareness and speed on this play and while he didn’t record the tackle, he drew a block in the back penalty. 

Stopping the run

Here Batty engages with a lead blocker, shows nice hands in shedding the block, then wraps up the legs of the running back for a tackle on a short gain. While Batty is known to be a solid pass rusher with his 42 pressures in 2024, he’s going to need to show the ability to stop the run as well in order to raise his draft profile. Plays like this helped Batty do just that in front of a national audience. 

Batty chases down a running quarterback

This was by far Tyler Batty’s most impressive play. Here he’s basically on an island and has to discern where the ball is going on an option play. After he diagnoses a quarterback keeper he quickly changes direction and flashes his speed in running down the quarterback just before he reaches the end zone. This play should cause NFL talent evaluators to take notice.

It definitely resonated with the announcers. After stating that Batty was one of the standout players from practice throughout the week, the announcer mentioned speaking with former NFL great Shawne Merriman. The broadcaster asked Merriman who had stood out to him during practice and he said, “Tyler Batty is somebody who jumped off the film for me and stood out in practice.” 

Hitting the quarterback

In this clip Batty bull rushes the left tackle, drives him backward, and almost immediately hits the quarterback. The East’s quarterback saw Batty bearing down on him and rushed a hurried pass that landed well out of bounds. If Tyler Batty ends up getting drafted it will be primarily be due to his pass rushing skills, and NFL front offices should have liked what they saw here. 

Batty’s draft potential

Before the Shrine Bowl Tyler Batty was a fringe draft prospect on the whole. Some mock drafts had him being selected somewhere in the later rounds while many others hand him going undrafted. 

NFL Mock Draft Database currently projects the BYU edge rusher as a sixth round pick. Pro Football Focus ranks him as the No. 171 prospect in the 2025 draft, which would fall somewhere near the end of the fifth round. NFL Draft Buzz has Batty at No. 193 on their Big Board which also puts Batty in the sixth round. 

But a host of other mock draft databases don’t have Tyler Batty on their radar. 

After Batty’s strong week at the Shrine Bowl, expect that to change. 

BYU's Tyler Batty shined at the Shrine, and he should be moving up draft boards as a result. 

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